rescue911fandomcom-20200213-history
Cat Burglar
Location: San Clemente, California Date: March 25, 1993 Story When Robert Morey, Jr. spent two years planning his dream home in a rural area of San Clemente, California, he put in a lot of thought picking out the perfect location and deciding on the perfect house. But in the pre-dawn hours of March 25, 1993, while he was asleep, he heard glass break and his burglar alarm go off. He got out of bed, grabbed a rifle from under the bed and went downstairs to investigate the break in, discovered the broken window in his living room, and in the darkness, he went into his kitchen to call 911. It was dispatcher Wendy Anderson's first 911 call. "Since it was such a calm call, I wasn't nervous at all. It did not feel like a real emergency call at the time," she explained. Dispatch trainer Stephanie Oliver backed her up. Robert turned on the lights, turned around, and screamed in horror when he saw that there was a bobcat in his house. "It scared the heck out of us both. The first thing that came to my mind was, 'They had a gun to his head,'" said Stephanie. Wendy asked Robert what was in his house and he screamed, "There's a bobcat in my house!" It was sitting on the kitchen counter and growling at him. Stephanie instructed Robert not to move, feel free to fire the gun, and put it down once the officers came. She asked him how big the bobcat was, and he said that it was big as his Siberian huskies, and he said that they were the reason it broke in. He asked Wendy if bobcats attack and she didn't know but asked him why it broke in. Stephanie called Animal Control. Robert was really scared and wanted to move but she didn't want him to. Patrol officer Kevin O'Brien was the first officer to arrive. "I've worked in the law enforcement for eight years, and I never had this type of call, and I didn't know exactly how to handle it," said O'Brien. Lt. Bill Trudeau told Officer O'Brien not to enter Robert's house until he or the animal control arrived. Then he arrived, and O'Brien told him that Robert was still on the phone with his gun in his hand, and the bobcat was in the kitchen next to him. Robert saw the police outside his house and put the gun down, but the police were telling Stephanie to have him hold it longer, because they did not want to go into the house. If the bobcat chased him to the front door, he would have to shoot it, so he picked up the gun, hung up, and slowly walked to the front door with the gun and outside. He was thinking the bobcat was going to follow him, and when he got out, the police told him to close the door. After a half hour of Robert's call, Orange County Animal Control officer Larry Cyr got to the house. "Bobcats don't normally pose a threat to humans, because we're so much larger than they are. But if they were cornered they could be very dangerous," said Larry. He went inside and turned on the kitchen light. The bobcat was still there and growling at him. Its growl made him a little scared while he put a noose around its neck and escorted it from the kitchen. Larry had trouble getting the bobcat into the truck while Robert and the police were watching, "People tell me, 'Oh, bobcats are docile, they won't hurt you.' I'm like, 'You didn't see this bobcat fight the animal control guy when he was leaving, this bobcat would have killed me,'" said Robert. Larry drove the bobcat up into the woods and set it free. "I think the biggest lesson about wildlife that we've learned is just more less to leave them alone. We can live with the wildlife, but when you interfere trying to be helpful or hurtful either way then you cause large problems," said Larry. Robert said he likes living in a quiet neighborhood, has dealt with wild animals such as bobcats and mountain lions in his backyard, and can't expect any of them breaking into his house again. Category:1993 Category:California Category:Animal Intruders Category:Humorous Rescues